A new anti-anxiety dietary supplement was developed for the animal health market, by combining 2 triterpene containing botanicals, Souroubea sympetala (Marcgraviaceae) with Platanus occidentalis (Platanaceae) A validated method for a quality control of the botanical blend was achieved using HPLC-APCI-MS. The method resulted in the detection and quantitative determination of betulinic acid (1), and ursolic acid (2) in P. occidentalis and 1, 2, lupeol (3), β-amyrin (4) and α-amyrin (5) in S. sympetala and the finished product Zentrol TM. Detections were at low ng on column for 1 and 2 and in low µg range for 3, 4 and 5 using calibration curves within 10-100 ng (R 2 > 0.993). Recovery of spiked samples for all the recoveries observed were > 94%. Inter-day and intraday variations were 0.8-3.5% and 5-10.4%, respectively. These results indicate the suitability of the developed analytical method to detect and quantify triterpenes of raw materials used in the manufacture of natural health products.
Biorefineries are a model for greener production processes, based on the concept of bioeconomy. Instead of targeting first-generation biofuels—that compete with food supply—the focus relies on lignocellulosic material, considering many aspects, such as sustainable fuel production, as well as valorization of waste, as an alternative to the traditional petrochemical approach of goods production. Especially, in tropical countries agricultural activities lead to tremendous amounts of biomass, resulting in waste that has to be dealt with. In the case of Costa Rica, the five major crops cultivated for export are coffee, oil palm, pineapple, sugarcane, and banana. Traditional ways of waste treatment cannot cope with the increasing amount of biomass produced and therefore, bear various challenges often related to increased pollution. This review aims to bring up the recent state of waste treatment but even more, stress potential opportunities of adding value to not used residues; thus, improve sustainability in the agro industrial sector. Part I of the review already highlighted the potential of producing promising bioactive chemical compounds by novel biorefinery concepts from agricultural waste originating from coffee and oil palm cultivation. This second part focuses on the lignocellulose-rich biowaste from pineapple, sugarcane, and banana, showing biorefinery concepts, where fuel and energy production, as well as establishment of novel products and new applications, play an important role.
The Marcgraviaceae is a neotropical plant family of lianas and shrubs distributed throughout Central and South America, mainly in evergreen and semi-evergreen tropical forests. In this study, extracts of 12 Marcgraviaceae species were assessed for inhibition of bacterial quorum sensing (QS) in Chromobacterium violaceum, bacterial biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14, and fungal growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Six species showed promising inhibitory activities in at least one of the three bioassays (Marcgravia nervosa Triana & Planch., Marcgravia polyantha Delp., Marcgravia schippii Standl., Marcgraviastrum subsessile (Benth.) Bedell, Schwartzia brasiliensis (Choisy) Bedell ex Gir-Cañas, and Schwartzia costaricensis (Gilg.) Bedell). Analyses of the crude extract of the leaves of Marcgravia nervosa using HPLC–APCI–MS showed the presence of five pentacyclic triterpenes: ursolic acid (2), betulinic acid (3), α–amyrin (4), β–amyrin (5), lupeol (6). Bioassay-guided fractionation of this plant resulted in the isolation and identification of 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (1) as the active principle with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 85–100 μmol·L−1 against Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4741 (haploid) and BY4743 (diploid).
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